Posh makes a comeback. No, not her

Far be it for me to claim to be on the cutting edge of things, because really, I really, really, am not, but I can make an exception. Well, it’s not really cutting edge once the Guardian is writing features about it, but still.

Anyway, so today’s Guardian has a story about the massive increase in sales of Barbour jackets, and says we’re witnessing the rise of all things posh, from David Cameron to kedgeree. Tory Chic, they’re calling it. Yeesh.

But just last night I was talking to someone about how I object to the idea of wildly expensive things being in those perennial features about investment shopping, and how every single one of them always has a Burberry mac in it. Why not a Barbour, I said? The proper Burberry trenches start at around £600. Barbour has a really cool parka for £230.

But the real reason the upper classes love them is that they appeal to their innate sense of stinginess: you can send them back to the company HQ and they’ll repair and ‘reproof’ them, which means they’re handed down from grandparents to grandchildren. If you ever wanted to know how big the upper class is in the UK, I’m sure someone could rustle up an algorithm based on the fact that 13,000 jackets get sent to the repair shop every single year.

Just one thing: if like me and the rest of New York, you wear wellies when it rains, think carefully before you wear them with a Barbour. All you’d need to do is add a shotgun and you’d fit right in at Sandringham this Christmas.